The Daily Lifeweb design and personal blog by Evan Skuthorpe

Chris of Sydney said:

This game encourages violence and agression. It should be banned to keep our children safe from this exposure to society. Shame on you people for puting your own selfish needs before that of our young generation.

I replied:

Chris of Sydney. You couldn’t be more wrong…

Why on earth should the wider community miss out on a fun, healthy experience of playing a good game? What’s your issue? Do you fail to recognise that it’s a parents responsibility and decision as to whether their children are allowed to play this game. You do realise that like myself, the average gamer is well into their 20′s? That is to say, legal adults able to make their own decision.

If feeble minded people like yourself are lead to violence and aggression because of outside elements like Video Games, Movies or Music then I suggest we as a society pass a law banning people like you from leaving their homes in order to protect the community.

Now go back under your rock.

All a fuss about this.

Today is 9th September 2009 and the world is going to end. No wait… the media must be pre-occupied with other stories that they’ve missed a prime date to be able to make the news. Oh well…

I remember 10 years ago when Sega released the Dreamcast in the US and Japan. They released it on the 9/9/99 to much fanfare while we in Australia and the UK had to wait till November. The Sega Dreamcast was in it’s day, the greatest console to have ever existed. It was innovative. Its game line up, its controller (the inspiration for the Xbox controller) and visual memory unit, its hype, its blue swirl (orange in the US and Japan) and its glamour. The Dreamcast was the forerunner to all online consoles of today and had the most beautiful and realistic graphics of its time. It still holds memories of some of the greatest gaming moments ever, even today.

As for the games; Shenmue, Sega Rally 2, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, Toy Commander, Virtua Fighter 3tb, Jet Grind Radio and the list goes on.

Oh, and a new Dreamcast game has been announced. Yes, in 2009! 10 years after its launch! Happy 10th birthday Sega Dreamcast, I miss you!

IGN has a great commemorative article on the Dreamcast here.

Now where’s my PS3 controller…

It’s an exciting time for PC gamers. PC strategy gamers that is. IGN reports on Creative Assembly’s latest – Empire: Total War. I’ve been a fan of this series from the beginning – Shogun: Total War moving on to Medieval: Total War, Rome: Total War and then finally Medieval 2: Total War. This game looks to be shaping up as the next evolution in not only this franchise but also the rival Civilisation series.

How I’ve spent many hours in Civilisation 4 playing as the English colonising the world… now I can do it in the Total War way – with real-time battle control! Awesome!

It looks as if my PS3 will have to take a back seat when this comes out.